


I Picked You—The Seduction Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 19:28:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6672586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sophie didn’t think he could seduce her?  Takes place right after The Lonely Hearts Job, season four.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Picked You—The Seduction Job

**Author's Note:**

> I needed to write a mushy, romantic fic after working on my long Leverage fic. Enjoy!

Takes place right after The Lonely Hearts Job

I Picked You—The Seduction Job

“You just have to convince her that you’re capable of seducing me, make it believable.”

Sophie didn’t think he could seduce her?  What had he been doing for the last however many months?  She had clothes in his closet, her favorite wine chilling in the refrigerator, her shampoo sitting on a ledge in his bathtub.  He thought he’d already performed that function quite admirably.  Foreplay for a dozen years or more, what else was there to do?

Even if he didn’t know Sophie, he’d have been able to do it.  So what if he was out of practice?  He had managed to snag Maggie, for goodness sake.  Of course, she had thought he was a jerk at first, turning him down at least ten times before agreeing to just have coffee with him.  So maybe the ladies weren’t his specialty.  He still had some kind of track record, even if it was decades old.

There had been marks that flirted with him, clients that moved too close at times.  He wasn’t dead.  He just had his eyes on the prize, like he had for the last dozen years.

It was inevitable that they’d end up together.  They challenged each other, complimented each other in ways that he didn’t with Maggie.  Maggie let him get away with too much; Sophie called him on it almost every single time.  Both were smart, sophisticated, worldly.  Maggie was too honest and open, while Sophie was mysterious and most of the time closed-mouthed, only revealing things about herself when her guard was down.  Well, maybe that wasn’t a great quality to have, but it wasn’t like he was great on the sharing thing.  He understood how Sophie ticked; he never understood how Maggie ticked.  She was just too damn nice.

Sophie could have anyone she wanted.  She probably already did.  Maggie could too, but had no idea she could.  Sophie did and used it to her advantage, especially when she was conning a mark.  How he had ended up with both of them in a lifetime was baffling.  He had no idea what either saw in him. 

He’d asked Maggie one time, early on in their relationship, what she saw in him.  She’d answered honestly and told him it was because he was an honest and loyal man, capable of great things.  And his smile.  That had been Maggie’s Achilles heel with him.  He’d smile and get away with pretty much everything.  That was until things started going downhill.  Not much to smile about then.

Was he honest?  Certainly not now, with what he did for people.  He was loyal still, but only to a very few.  It was only for those four people with whom he spent most of his time and very few others that he could ever consider to be loyal.  That was probably why he never could stray.  That Catholic guilt was just part of it.  Once you gained Nate Ford’s trust, his loyalty would never waver, even when there were transgressions such as conning your team or not telling them that your former employer was Moreau.  It may have stretched the loyalty a bit, but once gained, it would take a lot to shatter.

Picking up his drink, he swirled it around as he looked into the amber liquid, contemplating what his next move with Sophie was.  He was honest when he told her she was beautiful, probably the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on.  It took a lot to say that to her with an audience.  Not only did that make it more believable, it made it truer than anything he’d ever said.  If he wanted Sophie to continue being there for him, he needed to be honest with her, even about the small things.  And potentially the bigger things in his life.  Definitely the bigger things in his life.

He heard the click of her heels before he saw her.  As Eliot said, it was a very distinctive click, walk or whatever it was that he thought.  He could pick her out amongst any woman walking down the street. 

“Nate?” she called from the front door.

“Sophie.”

She looked stunning in a red blouse and black short pencil skirt, heels high as always.  He never figured out how she actually walked in those things, but he liked the results. 

“You said on the phone that you wanted to talk to me about something?”

“Oh, yeah, um, yeah.”

He stumbled on the words to say to her.  She did that to him, frequently, if not every day.

The surprise of the roses yesterday made Nate realize that he just couldn’t sit back anymore and let her do all the work in whatever they were doing.  She seemed to be the one who took the lead, while he danced around her, hoping not to make a mistake and have her walk away.

“I have a surprise for you,” he finally got out, pointing to the stairs.

“Surprise?  Better than the roses that Eliot sent yesterday?”

Busted.

“Eliot?”

“You have a major tell when you’re surprised.  You’ll have to work on that, you know.  The eyes are a window to the soul.  Yours seem to get wide eyed and turn just a bit of a different color when you’re surprised.  You almost blew that job, remember.  When Annie Kroy appeared.”

“Ok, could you at least act surprised?” he said as he led her up the stairs.

“Oh, it’s not me who needs to work on that.  You.  Entirely you, Nate.”

Nate had left the door to his bedroom closed, just in case one of the others snooped.  Of course, that probably wouldn’t have mattered, because one of them would have picked the lock anyway.  Luckily they all were out today, taking the day off after a successful job.  Nate surmised Parker was having too much fun playing with her plant and Hardison using it to his advantage.  Who knew what Eliot did other than possibly picking up another woman from the bar.  He did like to celebrate when things went smoothly.

All he remembered Eliot saying when Nate had come upstairs was “Fisticuffs.  Who does that?” Nate didn’t ask him to elaborate.

Nate slowly opened the door to his bedroom, letting Sophie go through first.  She stopped only a few feet in.  A gasp of surprise from Sophie was all he needed.  He had indeed managed to surprise one of the greatest grifters in history.  That didn’t happen often, and probably wouldn’t again for some time.

“Oh Nate.  It’s lovely.”

And she said he wasn’t romantic.

“I take it back.  You actually can be romantic.”

“Aren’t you glad to eat those words?”

“Don’t gloat.  Save it for the marks, dear.”

As he led her to the small table he had set up on the other side of the room, Sophie stopped here and there to smell all the roses he had gathered from every florist in the area.  There were red ones, white ones, pink ones.  There were even a few other kinds of flowers, although he had no idea what they were. 

Pulling her chair out, he helped her get settled and pushed it in.  The bottle of wine he picked was chilling by the table, the food ready to go.  Catering was a blessing in his book.  He couldn’t just feed her omelets all the time.

“My favorite,” she commented as she saw what he was serving. 

He poured her a glass of wine as she tasted, groaning in pleasure as she did.

“You’ve outdone yourself, Nate.”

He picked up his wine glass.  “To Sophie.  The most beautiful woman in the world.”

Sophie clinked glasses with him, clearly not believing what he’d just said, but she didn’t comment.  She had tells too.  This one he did not want to point out unless absolutely necessary.

They ate in relative silence except for the music playing low in the background.

“Nate, you’re staring,” she finally said, breaking his concentration.

“Oh, sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.  I’m just wondering what you’re thinking.”

“Dessert.”

Sophie never blushed, but now she did.  It was very rare, but he’d seen it a few times, like the first time he’d ever complimented her. She’d been so much younger and carefree, he wasn’t sure what he was doing at the time.  Paris was so long ago, a lifetime ago.

Placing his napkin down on the table, Nate held out his hand to her.

“May I have this dance?”

She smiled up to him.  It was her real smile, not the fake one she used out in public, when they were on a job and she had to play a character.  They were entirely different smiles.  Here her eyes crinkled just a bit at the corners (he definitely wouldn’t tell her that; she might throw something at him).  Her smile was wider, more open, not seductive.  She could do seductive.  Oh could she ever.

Taking her hand, he pulled her to him, not worrying about leaving space between them like he had to so many times in the past.  As she leaned into him, he breathed in her unique scent. She smelled the same that she did the day they actually met, the day she told him she was Sophie Devereaux. 

She settled her head against him, sighing as she did.  One hand was on her back, making small circles, the other in her hand as they swayed to their own beat.  Her fingers played at the nape of his neck, making him shiver a bit at her light touch.

“Um, this is perfect,” she murmured as she shifted her stance, raising her head so they were now cheek to cheek.

He had to ask her, had to find out what she saw in him.  It had been eating away at him for the last few weeks.  His need to understand the woman he held in his arms may be a mistake.  She’d let him know though, if he went too far.  She’d been blunt when they’d started this, whatever they were doing.  Friends with extras was total bullshit when it came to them.  She just didn’t know it yet.

“Sophie?”

“Yeah,” she said as she raised her head to look directly at him.

Great, he thought.  Now she had to turn those soul searching eyes on him.  But he dove in, head first.

“What do you see, in me?  You could have, well, just about anybody?”

She smiled again at him, biting her lip after.  God did she know what that did to him?  What was it he asked?

“Oh Nate.  You think too much sometimes.  But that’s one of the qualities that I love about you.”

She said the L word, but he let it slide because of the context.

“So put me out of my misery.”

“I like smart men.  You happen to be the smartest I’ve ever met.  You’re unusually cool under pressure, know more about art than most, have the most interesting hair I’ve ever seen.”

Nate chuckled at that.  “I try.”

“No. That’s probably part of it.  You’re not vain, like some of those asses I met in Europe.  You walk into a room, people stop and look.  Do you know the power you have?”

Him?  Where’d she get that?

“Well, maybe it’s just over me, but people do notice.  You’re confident, unless you get overconfident, then you’re an ass.  But that’s only happened a few times.  You sometimes let me dress you.”

“Not like I have a choice.”

“Exactly.  You smell delicious right now.”

Sophie placed several tiny kisses along his neck, making him close his eyes to savor the softness of her lips.

“You turn a wonderful shade of pink whenever I embarrass you.  Your hands are magic.”

Nate could feel a blush coming on just when she said that.

“See?  Told you. They are though.”

He worked out her blouse from her skirt just so he could touch the skin on her back.

“I get lost sometimes, when you stare at me with those eyes.  The deeper blue they get, the more I know I will enjoy when the day ends, like now.”

His breathing was getting heavier and heavier now, with Sophie pressed close to him, her hand working its way at his neck, the other under his shirt.

“Always, always wear blue, dear.  There have been so many times when you’ve worn that blue shirt or have a blue tie on, and I’ve wanted to have my way with you.”

“Sophie,” he managed to get out.

“I love how you say my name, whether it’s in the comm or at the bar or when I wrestle you to the floor and have my way with you.”

“Lots of you having your way with me.”

“Uh huh.”

His hand worked down to her hip while the other one worked its way up her back.  When he didn’t feel a bra strap, he pulled back slightly to look her in the eyes.

“Forget something?”

“No,” she told him, acting innocent.

Working his hand from her back to her front, she gasped in pleasure as he found what he was looking for.  Hiking her skirt up, he also discovered the lack of underwear too.  Taking her mouth with his, he walked her over to the bed slowly as his hands explored more without taking off her clothes.

“What about dessert?” she said as his mouth descended to her neck to suck.

“You’re dessert.”

“And here I thought you’d have chocolate.”

Good idea for next time as she fell to the bed as he gently pushed her back.  Her legs spread wide, showing him her lack of undergarments.  He wouldn’t have made it through dinner if he’d known.

“You’re going to ruin the silk, aren’t you?” she asked as he crawled up her body.

“I can get you another,” he whispered in her ear.

She was faster than he was, pulling it over her head and flinging it aside.

“I was having fun with that.  Red is my favorite color on you.”

“I thought that nothing was your favorite.”

“Damn straight,” he said as his hand worked under her skirt again, mouth descending to her breast, making her groan with delight.  Arching her back, she gave him full access.

“Nate, clothes.”

“Thought you liked the blue shirt.”

“Now,” she demanded as his hand touched her inner thigh.

“Demanding.”

She helped him push down his pants and flung off his shirt over her head until he only had on the boxers.  The skirt she still had on slid down her thighs at too slow a speed for her, but he stilled her hands as he caressed every part of her legs as he did it.  Working his way back up her body, she was restless, squirming under his body.  When he finally made his way up her body, he took her mouth hungrily.  She answered back, tongue thrusting into his mouth, eager.  Her leg wrapped around his backside, urging him to get on with it.

“Nate,” she hummed as she ground herself up against him.

Should he torture her more or give in?  Pinning her to the bed, arms above her head now, he moved against her, but didn’t give her exactly what she wanted.

“Don’t tease,” she groaned out.

“The answer on the crossword.”

“If you don’t take me, I will make it hurt later.”

“Promise?”

“Definitely.”

As he finally sank into her, she wrapped both legs around his waist. Timing her thrusts with him, he knew it wouldn’t take long with her and probably him.  If he was much younger, he would have never lasted with her.  Instead of burying his head in her shoulder as he always did, he put his elbows on the bed so he could look down at her face, see her when she peaked.  Her eyes opened as he watched her, shy at first, then daring him to watch her as she watched him.  It was only when she screamed in pleasure did her eyes close tight, a tear escaping as she did.  Two more thrusts and he was gone too, burying his head into her neck.

“Never boring with you,” she breathed out.

“Oh?  Not boring.”

“Of course, all I’ve been thinking about all day was you.”

“Really?” he said as he rolled off to the side.

“Hence the lack of undergarments.”

“We could have skipped dinner.”

He played with her hair as she confessed what she’d thought about his seduction.

“You worked so hard on all this.  I almost threw you down on the table downstairs.  Of course, if I had, one of them would have walked in, you mooning them.  We never would have heard the end of it.”

“Ha ha.  Very funny. End of it?”

“I aim to please,” she said as she rolled to face him.  “God, your hair has a mind of its own.”

She played with it, running her hands through it, relaxing him even further.

“You should do that more.”

“I will.  Might be a give away though, for the kids.”

“Do you think I care?”

Rolling him onto his back, Sophie pinned him to the mattress.

“Sophie, after that, I think I gonna need a few minutes.”

“Old man.”

“Insatiable wench.”

“Your wench.”

Pulling her down to kiss him again, he savored the taste of her.

“How about a nice bubble bath?” she suggested when he let her go.

“I have bubble bath?”

“You do now.”

“Oh. Good thinking.”

She held out a hand to him as she rose from the bed.

 

As he cuddled next to her, spent from Sophie’s explorations, he lightly traced the softness of her shoulder.

“Go to sleep, Nate,” she mumbled, placing her hand over his to make him stop. 

Sighing, he pulled her close, possessively close as she settled down, breathing evening out as she drifted off into sleep.

“I love you, Sophie Devereaux.  Now and forever,” he whispered.

He was sure he was safe saying it now, if just to practice for the real thing.

“I love you too, Nathan Ford.  Always.”

Oops. Busted, yet again.  She grasped his hand tighter.

 

“Listen. I picked you. I didn’t pick the others. Hardison, Parker, Eliot -- I picked you. All right?”


End file.
